Town Square

Comment on the "Open Letter to a Librarian..."

Original post made
by Sam, Oak Hill,
on Sep 24, 2013

I read the harsh open letter complaining about a particular Pleasanton librarian before the post was deleted and the thread locked down. I have to say that I had a similar experience one time when I was in the library. A woman had taken some magazines from the magazine section and carried them over to the children's section for reading. A particular librarian then came over and angrily berated her for removing so many magazines (it looked like she had about eight) and taking them to another section of the library. The librarian made quite a loud scene, and I thought that her behavior was extremely excessive.

I then quietly went to the circulation desk and asked to see the head librarian on duty. I complained to him about the excessive behavior of one of his librarians and made a point of emphasizing that I did not object to the librarian enforcing the library rules, but to the rude and tactless way in which she handled the manner and to the disruption it caused to other library patrons.

I don't doubt that the librarians have to be firm at times (it was starting to get a little bit busy and almost noisy on Monday evening with all the middle- and high-school students at the study desks). But there is a right way to handle these things. If this particular librarian is still working there, I hope that the library limits her activities to computer work and shelving books, and assigns someone with better diplomatic and social skills to deal with the public.

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Posted by Jtjh
a resident of Vintage Hills Elementary School
on Sep 25, 2013 at 6:01 pmJtjh is a registered user.

I did not see the original 'open letter' whose content was deemed inappropriate and deleted. However, the title of the message remains for all to see - and it includes what appears to be the first name of the person under attack.